Entertainment: God-level director

Lin Ran did not expect Song Zuer to get up and ask questions, and couldn’t help but be stunned for a moment.

When he looked at her, Song Zuer had a smile on his face and winked at him.

Lin Ran was speechless, shook his head slightly, and glared at Song Zuer, who was deliberately mischievous.

“Song Zuer’s question is a very good one. Since Hollywood attaches so much importance to scripts, why does it produce a large number of bad movies every year?”

Everyone in the audience also looked at Lin Ran curiously, showing interest.

“The reason is very simple. Movies are inherently subjective. Every audience has different tastes. Some people think the same movie is a classic, while others think it is bullshit. There is no movie in the world that can satisfy everyone.

Hollywood’s set of rules does not necessarily require every script to be excellent, but it does its best to ensure that excellent scripts can be produced on a large scale under this system. Unlike the current domestic situation, the emergence of a good script is purely It depends on luck.

Just like a production line, even if it is continuously optimized, it is difficult to achieve a 100% yield, but through continuous optimization, the yield can be maximized. Lin

Ran gave an easy-to-understand explanation to the students in the audience, and then looked at Song Zuer:”Student Song Zuer, do you understand now?””

“Got it, thank you, Teacher Lin.”

Team Song nodded pretendingly, thanked Lin, and then sat down.

Lin Ran then continued:”Now that the script has been decided, what’s the next turn?”

“Assemble the project team.”

A directing student in the audience immediately replied

“Yes, after the script is finalized, it’s time to assemble the project team, but in Hollywood this step is very cautious, because it means that for a period of time in the future, every second that passes is a wasted cash outflow.

Stars and directors generally have pay-as-you-go clauses. Once the project is approved, they can receive a fixed salary. According to statistics, each Hollywood transaction is worth US$130 million.

Therefore, detailed work needs to be done before the project is launched. Most Hollywood studios require the distribution and marketing departments to come up with detailed performance forecasts and cost analysis to discuss the feasibility of the project before making a decision.

This plan needs to calculate the film shooting cycle based on the movie shots, as well as the estimated total expenses, including the purchase of copyrights, script development, stars, director’s remuneration, screenwriter’s remuneration, etc. are all locked in the plan.

Let me take Schwarzenegger’s”Terminator 3″ as an example. Guess how many pages the budget report covers?”

Lin Ran asked another question.

“10 pages?”

“20 pages?”

“50 pages?”

“It won’t reach 100, right? Seeing Lin

Ran keep shaking his head, the students in the audience kept adding more information, and soon they were called to page 100.

However, Lin Ran still shook his head and revealed:”It’s a full 156 pages!””

“Wow!”

“No way, a budget report only has 156 pages? This is thicker than the script”

“My God, 156 pages of budget report, how detailed this is.”

Not only the students in the audience were shocked, but also the teachers in the listening department were shocked.

Because many teachers in the directing department have never studied in the United States, but instead participated in the operation of a Hollywood film project, and they did not understand it at all.

“Lao Wang, is Hollywood really so perverted that it requires so many preparations for just one budget report?”

A teacher asked Wang Haiyi.

Wang Haiyi had been an exchange student at the University of Southern California Film School for a year and knew more about Hollywood than they did.

“There are indeed so many. When I was at the University of Southern California, I was fortunate enough to intern on a film crew. Although their budget report was not as long as 156 pages, it was still over 120 pages long.”

Wang Haiyi nodded.

“Gee, it’s Hollywood as expected.”

A teacher sighed.

Lin Ran was very satisfied with the reaction of the students in the audience and said with a smile:”When making budgets in China, we usually only list the director’s salary, actor’s salary, publicity expenses and other relatively large aspects, but in Hollywood it will be very detailed..

More importantly, in the process of formulating Hollywood budget plans, box office revenue forecasts are a core part”

“Um?”

Many students in the audience were stunned for a moment. Didn’t they make a budget? Why did they go to predict the box office again?

Lin Ran saw their doubts and explained:”Production companies often invest in a movie to make money. Only by first figuring out how much box office the movie will probably get can we make targeted investments.

To predict movie box office, a huge team is needed. They will build a mathematical model for box office prediction through multiple dimensions.

Each of the six major Hollywood companies has its own box office prediction mathematical model. After decades of continuous research and improvement, although it will not be too accurate, it will not be too far off in general.

For example, for my”Interstellar”, before the project was launched, Universal Pictures made an internal box office forecast, and the result was that the box office would be around US$750 million.

Therefore, when the cost budget was only US$180 million, indicating that this project had a high probability of making money, Universal Pictures did not hesitate to invest.”

“I see.”

Many people nodded their heads, feeling that they had learned a lot of new things, which were not taught in textbooks or in class.

“After forming the team, the next step is to start the project. The size of the project team for a blockbuster film is no less than that of a medium-sized company. The size of the project team for Hollywood blockbusters can often reach several thousand people.

To manage such a large team well, the director needs to have good management skills so that he can control the set.

Otherwise, the entire crew will be in a mess, which may delay the filming schedule, or cause serious safety accidents. There are too many examples, so I won’t give them one by one.

Therefore, I recommend that students in the directing department also take management as an elective major. Lin

Ran suggested again.

“OK”

“Haha, I started studying management courses by myself when I was a sophomore in college.”

“The next step is shooting, which generally lasts 3-5 months. The shooting shots are of course controlled by the director, but Hollywood is a producer-centered system, and the producer has very great power. This is used to restrict the director. To prevent the director from letting himself go.

On this issue, our domestic directors are very serious. They often let themselves go. They are obviously making commercial films, but they always come up with some inexplicable plots, which makes the audience confused.

Movies have dual attributes of commodities and art. If you are making a commercial film, you must restrain the idea of expressing yourself. Otherwise, if you are happy, investors and the audience will not be happy.

If they are upset, then you will cry later.

Therefore, I sincerely advise students in the directing department not to let themselves go and be happy for a while. After all, it is better to be happy for a while than to be happy forever, right? Lin

Ran said seriously.

“Hahaha”

“Brother Ran is right!”

“It feels good to let yourself go for a while, but there is a crematorium down there?”

Listening to what Lin Ran said was interesting, the classroom burst into laughter.

“After the filming is completed, the next step is post-production, distribution, and release. Everyone knows these, so I won’t go into details.

I want to ask everyone, in the production process of a Hollywood movie I just talked about, which link is missing? Lin

Ran asked with a smile.

“Is there anything missing?”

“From the script to the release, the entire process was covered.”

Not to mention students from other departments, even students from the directing department are full of doubts.

PS: Thank you [Dong Xi] and [Xiaodong] two book friends for their monthly support._Fei

Lu reminds you: three things about reading – Collection, recommendation, points